The New York Times needed a conservative op-ed columnist, because they decided they needed a conservative op-ed columnist. The New York Times did not go out and get the best possible columnist they could discover, someone exciting! original! groundbreaking! No, they went for that Ross Douthat guy. Egad affirmative action shudder.
It says something about the state of Conservatism that the best they could scrounge is Douthat, whose main claim to fame, or at least cognition, is that he's a "conservative" who is, uh, almost presentable.
And, on the other hand, it says something about the state of the Main Stream Media, that to get the counterpart gig as an actual liberal, you have to be on the short list for the fucking Nobel Prize.